Mrs Mears, who lives in Norwich, and Mrs Gomes, from the Midi-Pyrenees region of France, looked visibly shaken as they watched the trial.

Francisco Beltran, for the defence, told the jury his client was in “total disagreement” with the charge of murder against him.

He asked the jury of nine to see his client as a “sick man” who had been living in the street without a diagnosis or treatment for his acute schizophrenia.

Answering questions in Bulgarian with the help of an interpreter, Deyanov told the court he is haunted by voices which tell him how to act.

After watching CCTV footage of the attack, he said it was “a montage, a film” and claimed that he did not recognise himself in the images.

The defendant said he had been using crack cocaine and LSD before his arrest, but had no memory of living in Tenerife.

Jennifer Mills-Westley’s family arrive at court for the trial of Deyan Deyanov who is accused of her murder

He also denied that he had lived in Wales, where he was sectioned in the summer of 2010 under the Mental Health Act at Glan Clwyd Hospital.

Prosecutor Angel Garcia Rodriguez told the court of the moment the frenzied attack took place.

Mr Garcia Rodriguez said: “The accused approached Jennifer Mills-Westley, who he did not know and who was shopping, attacking and striking her repeatedly with a knife in her back and neck until she was completely decapitated.”

He said the prosecution was seeking for Deyanov to be sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric unit.

Witness Davide Balsamo, an Italian who has lived in Tenerife for five years, described the moment he stumbled upon the horrific scene coming out of a hardware store.

He said: “I saw a guy walking around with a head in his hand.

“I came out of the shop and suddenly I saw him come off the kerb, completely covered in blood.

“I ran up to him and hit him with all my strength using my motorcycle helmet and knocked him silly.”